The Gods Go Down
by Carruthers
Summary: Asherah and Dagon grow bored and wrathful left abandoned by men in their heavenly realm, and vow to visit the Earth below. And is Dagon falling in love with the beautiful goddess of the heavens?


**The Gods Go Down**

**By Carruthers**

**Chapter One**

'Am I not Asherah, Queen among the Gods, most beautiful of all things mortal and immortal?' Asherah demanded, stomping her fair naked foot on the cloudy grounds of the Heavenly Palace.

'Indeed you are, my Lady,' replied Dagon, the Fish-God.

'Then why does no one worship me?' asked Asherah. 'Why am I forgotten? Why am I left to be ignored when once I worshipped far and wide in many lands?'

'It seems people have no time for us anymore,' said Dagon. 'Foolish mortals that they are!'

Asherah sat down heavily in her throne. It was of gold and sparkled in the eternal sunlight that her Kingdom enjoyed with crystals and precious stones of every type. Was she not Asherah, most beautiful of all the gods? She looked down into the glassy crystal that formed the floor of her palatial throne room. There was reflected perfectly her beautiful face: pale as the morning snow, with lips as red and full as roses, and eyes that could have pierced the very skies. Her long golden hair fell in tresses across her perfect body. For she was perfect – the very image and definition of perfection. All mortal womanly perfection could be determined only by reference to her, whether the foolish mortals knew it or not. She wore no robe. She had no need to be ashamed as women were.

Dagon was not so attractive. Though a terrible God of great power, whom none could stand against, he was in form part-man part-fish. Yet he was mostly a benevolent God, pleased to look upon the peoples of the earth with kindness. At least, he had been that way in the past. Now, the Gods forgotten, he oft wondered whether he might not better bestow upon them the gifts of his mighty rage.

'Let us send seas against them!' he exclaimed. 'I will rise up the oceans so that they flood the land! The men and women shall drown and the babies shall be choked in their sleep!'

'Hush, hush,' calmed Asherah. 'Be not so hasty. May it not be that in time the foolish mortals of the earth will repent and return their sacrifices to us? To you shall many temples be erected, and to me many holy poles dedicated in my name. They can forget us for but a little time.'

'Then let us send against them a warning!' shouted Dagon. 'Let us warn them with flood and pain what will become of them if they do not return to us!'

'They will return in time, if they know of our power,' Asherah reassured him. 'We must have faith in ourselves. How can we, we Gods, fail to be faithful to ourselves?'

'It is so,' Dagon agreed.

'What is the worst of it,' Asherah continued. 'Is that there is no fun to be had anymore. Though nothing may taint my beauty, my mind is vexed by the lack of sacrifices. What are we to do with our time?'

'Perhaps,' suggested Dagon, 'we might by sending torments upon the people entertain us in that way!'

'I think not,' retorted Asherah. 'O, there must be something we can do? Where is my lover, that has gone away – where is my consort? I am all alone now it seems …'

'I am here, my Lady,' Dagon said.

'That you are,' Asherah replied. 'But you can be no lover for me. Art thou not part-man part-fish, and are not all your parts the wrong parts? It is a most unsuitable arrangement.'

'That it is, my Lady,' Dagon agreed. 'But if you would let me try.'

'I cannot!' thundered Asherah. 'This is no good! This is foolishness! Are we not rotting, Gods though we are, sitting in our divine Kingdom? Has not Ba'al frozen almost to stone, and Moloch slept soundly these past three thousand years – though time by mortal calendars is nothing to us? Were we not there at the Creation of the World, and before it, when all was void and chaos? And yet here we are, living as nothing, though we live forever.'

'What shall we do?' asked Dagon.

'What shall we do indeed?' responded Asherah. 'I say to you what we shall do! We shall go down, and see the mortals for ourselves, and then we shall see what they think of us!'


End file.
